An Almost Religious Experence
I've done a few posts on Mount St. Benedict but never have I told you about the hiking trail that takes you even higher up the mountains to the only pine trees in the range and to where the view of the whole country is there to see via a tower than you can climb. It is surprisingly easy to get to the trail by car and the picture above shows the view of the trail when you're already up the mountain. To the left you can see the pine trees! Its an almost religious experience if you're doing it for the first time due to sound of the wind, the trees, the smell of pine cones and the magnificent view!
The Trail
If you look to the top left, you can see the Monastery and the pine trees on the mountain, to which we are going!
We head down the road as seen in the picture along a long winding and ascending roadway all the way up the mountain to the monastery. Once there we took the unpaved and gravel road that is the beginning of the trail. The winding road prior to this, however was beautiful in and of itself, decorated with nice fruit trees and flowers along the way. It's that kind of therapy the world needs!
This building marks the beginning of the trail.
An abandoned building starts the trail with a very orange gravel on the trails akin to the soil and rock that the mountain consists of. Its only up from here and it should take us around 30 minutes to get to the top. Already at this point you can feel the anticipation and excitement.
Not long into the trek and we could already get glimpses of the city and valley down below through the trees as we ascended the mountain. It was kind of weird to think we could, all at once, see hundreds of souls and the environment they thrive in as well as live and die.
The Tower Amongst the Pine Trees
When we finally got to the top of the mountain peak, the smell of pine trees hit you in the face as well as the cool breeze that rustled their branches creating soothing and therapeutic sounds. There were so many things appealing to the senses. I had a look at the tower and it was along way up, once again and I was quite tired from the walk up. But it was that intrinsic human curiosity and impulse to explore new things that lead me to continue once more, the journey upwards. The tower was rusty, old and quite dangerous but it was so worth the climb!
Once up there, it was, as I mentioned like a religious experience. It was powerful in a way as the cold wind hit my face and the view of literally the whole country came into my field of vision. I could in a way understand what astronauts talk about when they finally get to see earth in its entirety for the first time. The small island was, in a way, my world and to see it in its entirety was a life changing experience. To see something that you are accustomed to being within is like viewing it from a higher dimension. Almost like going from 2D and seeing it in 3D. Its hard to explain but i think you get the point. The panoramas I took did no justice.
What an Experience!
I have been to many countries and a few of them, I've visited their mountains such as in Venezuela which I believe was much higher than this one but for some reason this experience was much more meaningful and hard hitting. I believe it was because of my connection with the view. Those were streets, beaches and highways I've lived most of my life. I know this sound cliche but it puts everything into perspective. I think if everyone had an experience like this at least once in their lifetime, the world would be such a different place (in a positive manner). Thanks alot for coming along, Cheers!
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